Analyze STR profitability and compare against long-term rental
Short-term rentals can generate significantly higher gross revenue than traditional long-term rentals — but they also carry higher operating costs, more management overhead, and more volatility. This calculator models the full STR economics (nightly rate × occupancy × days, minus all operating costs) and shows you the break-even occupancy where STR beats a long-term rental on the same property.
Average revenue per booked night. Use AirDNA, Mashvisor, or local Airbnb listings for your market. Expect ADR to fall 10-20% in off-season.
Percentage of nights the property is booked. Top STR markets hit 60-70% annual occupancy; new listings often start around 40-50%.
Revenue Per Available Rental night = ADR × occupancy. The single most useful "pricing + demand" metric for benchmarking.
The occupancy % at which STR net cash flow matches your long-term rental baseline. Below this, convert to LTR. Above it, STR wins.
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Short-term rentals (STRs) look great on paper and often look very different in reality. This calculator models the full cost structure a vacation rental actually carries — nightly cleaning, platform fees, utilities, consumables, STR-specific insurance, dynamic-pricing software — and runs the deal against the same property leased long-term so you can see whether the STR premium is real for your property.
Break-even occupancy is the percentage of nights you need to be booked at your ADR to cover all expenses plus debt service. If break-even is 55% and your market averages 65% occupancy, you have a 10-point cushion for seasonality and bad quarters. If break-even is 72% and the market averages 60%, you lose money most years. The calculator computes this directly, and the chart lets you see how sensitive it is to ADR assumptions.
In most tourist markets, a well-run STR grosses 1.5×–3× what the same property rents for long-term. But STR operating expenses are typically 50%–70% of gross revenue, versus 30%–45% for LTR, so the net gap is much smaller than the gross gap suggests. Add in regulatory risk and higher labor hours, and STR has to meaningfully beat LTR on net cash flow to be worth it. The calculator reports both so you can compare like-for-like.
In most tourist markets, a well-run short-term rental generates 1.5x–3x the gross revenue of a long-term lease on the same property. But STRs also carry 2x–4x the operating costs (cleaning, utilities, supplies, platform fees, management) and are much more sensitive to local regulation and seasonality. The calculator compares your specific numbers side-by-side.
Break-even occupancy is the percentage of nights your property must be booked at your average nightly rate to cover all operating costs plus the mortgage. If break-even is 55% and your market averages 65%, you have a cushion; if break-even is 75%, you're one bad quarter from losing money.
Short-term rentals add: nightly cleaning turnover (even if guest-paid, it affects pricing), all utilities (electric, gas, water, internet, streaming), consumables (toiletries, coffee, paper goods), linens and furnishings replacement, higher insurance (STR-specific policies), platform fees (3%–15% of booking), and often professional co-hosting or dynamic pricing software.
RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Night) = average daily rate (ADR) × occupancy rate. It's the single best metric for comparing STR performance across properties, because it combines pricing power and demand. A $200 ADR at 60% occupancy ($120 RevPAR) is more valuable than $250 at 45% occupancy ($112.50 RevPAR).
Yes — this is the single biggest risk in short-term rentals. Many cities now limit non-primary-residence STRs (New York, Dallas, parts of LA, most of Hawaii), require permits, or cap nights per year. Check your local zoning and any HOA rules before buying. The calculator can't model regulatory risk, so build a margin of safety into your projections.